Baraka Patenga Power to invest more in electricity generation

The Baraka Patenga Power Limited (BPPL) will utilize part of its initial public offering (IPO) proceeds of Tk 1.44 billion (144.34 crore) to invest in two of its power generating subsidiaries on becoming one of the largest players in the country's private sector power generation.

The principal activity of the company is to set up power plants for generation and supply of electricity. The 50MW capacity plant located at Patenga in Chattogram, started its commercial operation on May 4, 2014.

Subsidiaries of the BPPL, the Karnaphuli Power Limited (KPL) and the Baraka Shikalbaha Power Limited (BSPL) have already started commercial operation after implementing two Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) based IPP (Independent Power Producer) power plants having generation capacity of 110MW and 105MW respectively.

"Our mission is to become the largest power generating company in the private sector by developing more power plants across the country," Gulam Rabbani Chowdhury, Chairman of Baraka Patenga Power Limited, told a group of journalists who visited Patenga on Wednesday.

The private sector now dominates Bangladesh's power generation to a great extent.

Earlier, on December 31, 2020, Baraka Patenga Power's bid to raise Tk225 crore from the public received the green light from the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).

The company will utilize portion of its IPO proceeds of Tk144.34 crore to invest in two of its power subsidiary power plants, Karnaphuli Power and Shikalbaha Power. The rest of the funds will be used to repay loans and bear the expenses of the IPO process.

The bidding to discover the cut-off price of shares of the company's Tk225 crore-initial public offering begins on February 15 for 72 hours.

The exercise is part of the book-building method that the power generation company chose to raise funds from the public.

The company published notice in renowned newspapers to invite investors, normally large-scale buyers and fund managers to submit bids on the number of shares that they are interested in buying and the prices that they would be willing to pay.

The book is 'built' by listing and evaluating the aggregated demand for the issue from the submitted bids.

After the bidding the cut-off price will be decided.

Retail investors will get the shares at a 10 per cent discounted price.

The lion's share of the IPO fund would be used in equity investment in Karnaphuli Power and Baraka Shikalbaha Power to settle the deferred obligations for Gen-sets procurements, BPPL chairman said.

"Both the companies, otherwise, would have to look for alternative sources of financing to meet such deferred obligations, which might be much costlier resulting in lower profitability" he said.

Baraka Power Limited, parent company Baraka Patenga Power Limited is already listed on the bourses since 2011.

Baraka Patenga Power holds 51 percent shares of both the two companies, whose main role is to generate and supply electricity to the national grid.

In its 2019-20 financial year that ended on June 30, the company logged in Tk67.4 crore as profit, up a staggering 123.9 percent.

After the repayment of long-term debt of Baraka Patenga Power with a portion of the IPO proceeds, the company's profitability would increase, he added.

Baraka Patenga Power intends to play a big role in the government's target to ensure electricity for all by 2021, through installing more power plants, Chowdhury said.

For the first time in the power sector in Bangladesh, a desulphurization plant was introduced to the project to reduce Sulphur emission to an acceptable level, Monzur Kadir Shafi, Managing Director of Baraka Patenga Power Limited said. He also added that due to incapacity of distribution line at present two of its subsidiaries are not running with full capacity. After May 2021, we will be able to run both the plants with full capacity which will increase the revenue significantly.